Contacting appliances are known in numerous variants, as in the case of charging stations for battery-operated mobile electrical devices. For the purpose of charging the battery in the electrical device, charging contacts must ensure a reliable electrical contact between device and charging station. However, this electrical contact must also be reliably provided over a multiplicity of charging operations and over a long service life of the electrical device.
In the case of many electrical devices, it is essential that they function without interruption and reliably over a long period of use, for example, where such devices that are used in the medical field. One example of these are so-called X-ray detectors in which a matrix-type sensor surface that is sensitive to X-ray radiation and has a multiplicity of regularly arranged sensor areas is disposed in a housing. The functionality of such electronic X-ray detectors is described in DE 101 06 221 A1 and in DE 103 07 752 A1.
DE 103 44 365 A1 discloses an X-ray detector having a battery which is arranged in the housing and provides the energy supply during mobile use and a send/receive unit for wireless signal transmission to an analysis unit. In addition, the detector can also have an interface for cable-based data transmission.
Other mobile X-ray detectors including batteries for energy supply are disclosed in DE 10 2004 048 21 A1 and DE 10 2005 018 004 A1.
In the case of such mobile X-ray detectors and other mobile devices having batteries for energy supply, the batteries must be regularly connected to a charging station in order to be recharged. In particular, following lengthy use and a multiplicity of contact mating operations, wear effects can occur and result in the batteries not being fully charged or no effective electrical contact being established.
For the purpose of establishing electrical contact between mobile X-ray detectors and associated charging stations, electrical drives are sometimes used. As a result of putting or inserting the detector into the charging station, a switch is activated in the end position and forwards a signal to the drive. The charging contacts are then extended by means of a motor and the connection is established between charging device and contact surfaces of the detector.